In general, all users must authenticate—unless Auto Login is enabled for a specific user. In this case, a particular user will be logged in automatically when the system starts. This can save some time, especially if a computer is used by a single person. It may impact account security. Auto Login can be enabled or disabled during installation or at any time using the YaST User and Group Management module. For more information, refer to Book “Start-Up”, Chapter 5 “Managing users with YaST”.

If your computer is running in a network environment and you are not the only person using the machine, you are usually prompted to enter your user name and password when you start the system.

Figure 1.1: Default GNOME login screen #

  

The GNOME desktop appears after you first log in. The top bar displays the Activities overview, the calendar, and the System menu. The following list gives more details on each element:

Figure 1.3: GNOME desktop #

  

1.2.1 Activities overview #

  

The Activities overview shows a preview of all open windows and icons for favorite and running applications. It also integrates searching and browsing functionality.

1.2.1.1 Opening the Activities overview #

  

To open the Activities overview, you have the following options:

• In the top bar, click Activities overview.

• Move your mouse pointer to the upper left hot corner.

• Press the Meta key on your keyboard.

1.2.1.2 Using the Activities overview #

  

In the following, the most important parts of the Activities overview are explained.

Figure 1.4: Activities overview #

  

dash

The Dash is the bar positioned in the center at the bottom. It contains your favorite applications and running applications. If you move the mouse pointer over one of the icons, the name of the corresponding application is displayed nearby. A small dot underneath the icon indicates that the application is running.

Right-clicking an icon opens a menu which offers different actions depending on the associated program. Using Add to Favorites, you can place the application icon permanently in Dash. To remove a program icon from Dash, select Remove from Favorites. To rearrange an icon, use the mouse to drag it to a new position.

Search box

On the top, there is a search box that you can use to find applications, settings and files in your home directory.

To search, you do not need to click the search box. You can begin typing directly after opening the Activities overview. Search starts immediately, you do not need to press Enter.

1.2.1.3 Using the Application menu #

  

Figure 1.5: Application menu for Firefox #

  

Right beside the Activities button, you can find the Application menu. It shows the name of the active application and provides quick access to the windows and details of the application.

To pause or close your session, open the System menu in the upper right corner of the top bar and choose one of the options listed.

To start GNOME Files, open the Activities overview by pressing Meta and search for files. Then select Files from the hit list.

Figure 2.1: File manager #

  

The elements of the GNOME Files window include the following:

To access devices like USB flash drives or CDs/DVDs, insert or attach the medium. An icon for the medium is automatically created on the desktop. For many types of removable media, a GNOME Files window pops up automatically. If GNOME Files does not open, double-click the icon for that drive on the desktop to view the contents. In GNOME Files, you will see an item for the medium in the sidebar.

Warning: Unmount to prevent data loss

Do not physically remove devices immediately after using them. Even when the system does not indicate that data is being written, the drive may not be finished with a previous operation.

To safely remove a device, proceed as follows:

There are multiple ways to search for files or directories. In all cases, the search will be performed on file and directory names. Searching by file size, modification date and other properties is only partially possible in the preinstalled graphical tools. Such searches are easier to do on the command line.

Copy and paste works the same as in any other operating system. First select the text, so that it appears highlighted, usually in blue. Then press Ctrl–C. Now move the keyboard focus to the right position. Finally, to insert the text, press Ctrl–V.

To copy or paste in the terminal, additionally press Shift together with the above key combinations.

An alternative way of using copy and paste is described in the following:

When copying information between programs, you must keep the source program open and paste the text before closing it. When a program closes, any content from that application that is on the clipboard is lost.

To surf the Web or send and receive e-mail messages, you must have configured an Internet connection. If you have installed openSUSE Leap on a laptop or a mobile device, NetworkManager is enabled by default. On the GNOME desktop, you can then establish Internet connections with NetworkManager as described in Book “Reference”, Chapter 28 “Using NetworkManager”, Section 28.3 “Configuring network connections”.

Depending on your environment, you can choose in YaST which basic service to use for setting up network connections (either NetworkManager or wicked). For details, see Book “Reference”, Chapter 13 “Basic networking”, Section 13.4.1.1 “Configuring global networking options”.

The GNOME desktop includes Firefox, a Mozilla*-based Web browser. You can start it by opening the Activities overview by pressing Meta and typing fire.

For more information, see Chapter 13, Firefox: browsing the Web.

The GNOME desktop offers Evolution, a personal information management application that provides integrated mail, calendaring and address book functionality.

Evolution seamlessly combines e-mail, a calendar, an address book, and a memo and task list in one easy-to-use application. With its extensive support for communications and data interchange standards, it can work with existing corporate networks and applications, including Microsoft* Exchange.

To start Evolution, open the Activities overview by pressing Meta and type mail.

The first time you start Evolution, it prompts you with a few questions to set up a mail account and import mail from an old mail client. Then it shows you how many new messages you have and lists upcoming appointments and tasks. The calendar, address book and mail tools are available in the shortcut bar on the left.

For more information, see Chapter 14, Evolution: e-mailing and calendaring.

For creating and editing documents, LibreOffice is installed with the GNOME desktop. LibreOffice is a complete set of office tools that can both read and save Microsoft Office file formats. LibreOffice has a word processor, a spreadsheet, a database, a drawing tool and a presentation program.

To start LibreOffice, open the Activities overview by pressing Meta and type libre.

For more information, see Chapter 9, LibreOffice: the office suite.

You can open the power settings by opening the Activities overview by pressing Meta and typing power. Now select Settings › Power from the results.

On certain events, such as a critically low battery state, GNOME will display notifications informing you about the event.

For more information, see Section 3.6, “Configuring power settings”.

You can use the Archive Manager application to create, view, modify or unpack an archive. An archive is a file that acts as a container for other files. An archive can contain many files, directories and subdirectories, usually in compressed form. You can use Archive Manager to create, open and extract a compressed non-archive file.

Archive Manager supports common formats, such as:

To start Archive Manager, open the Activities overview by pressing Meta and type arch.

If you already have a compressed file, double-click the file name in GNOME Files to view the contents of the archive in Archive Manager.

Figure 2.2: Archive manager #

  

You can take a snapshot of your screen or of an individual application window by using the Screenshot application. The screenshots are automatically saved to your ~/Pictures folder in your home directory.

Use the following global key combinations to quickly take a screenshot:

You can also use GIMP to take screenshots as described in the following:

For more information on GIMP, see Chapter 17, GIMP: manipulating graphics.

The Evince Document Viewer can open PDF files and many similar file types, such as XPS, DjVu, or TIFF.

Note: Rare display issues

In rare cases, documents will not be displayed correctly in Document Viewer. This can happen, for example, with certain forms, animations or 3D images. In such cases, ask the authors of the file what viewer they recommend. However, in some cases the recommended viewer will not work on Linux.

Figure 2.3: Document viewer #

  

To open Document Viewer, double-click a PDF file in a file manager window. Document Viewer will also open when you download a PDF file from a Web site.

To open Document Viewer without a file, open the Activities overview by pressing Meta and typing pdf.

To view a PDF file in Document Viewer, click Open, navigate to the PDF file and click Open again.

Use the side pane to navigate through the document. If your PDF document provides bookmarks, you can access them in the side pane as well.

When you connect to the Internet, the updater applet automatically checks whether software updates for your system are available. When important updates are available, you will receive a notification on your desktop.

For detailed information on how to install software updates with the updater applet and how to configure it, refer to the chapter about installing and removing software in Book “Start-Up”, Chapter 9 “Installing or removing software”, Section 9.4 “The GNOME package updater”.

Along with the applications described in this chapter for getting started, you can use many other applications on GNOME.

To learn more about GNOME and GNOME applications, see http://www.gnome.org.

To report bugs or add feature requests, go to http://bugzilla.gnome.org.

The desktop background is the image or color that is applied to your desktop. You can also customize the image shown when the screen is locked.

To change the desktop background:

openSUSE Leap can be configured to use any of several languages. The language setting determines the language of dialogs and menus and can also determine the keyboard and clock layout.

To configure your language settings right-click the desktop and choose Settings. Now choose Region & Language.

Here you can choose:

Note: Settings made using ibus-setup do not take effect

On GNOME, settings made using ibus-setup do not take effect. ibus-setup can only be used to configure IceWM. Instead, always use the Settings application:

• To change input methods, select Keyboard in the navigation pane of the Settings dialog.

• To change the key combination that switches between input methods, use Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts. Then select the category Typing and the entry Switch to next input source.

Refer to Section 4.4, “Keyboard and mouse” for additional settings, such as key autorepetition and cursor blink rate, and accessibility features. To configure your keyboard layout, refer to Section 3.2, “Configuring language settings”.

To modify keyboard shortcuts, right-click the desktop and choose Settings. Now select Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts.

Figure 3.2: Keyboard shortcut dialog #

  

This dialog shows the keyboard shortcuts that are configured for your system. To edit a key combination, click the entry that you want to change. To set a new key combination, press the respective keys. To disable a shortcut, press <— instead.

GNOME supports fast input source (keyboard layout) switching (Section 3.2, “Configuring language settings”). However, if you are using xmodmap to create custom keymaps, it may not work correctly when you switch between multiple input sources. For example, you have two input sources, English and German. Your xmodmap commands work fine in the first input source you select, but when you switch to the second input source the same xmodmap commands produce incorrect output. xmodmap is an older protocol and does not have a full view of the keyboard layout, so in more complex situations it causes errors.

An alternative method is to use xcompose to assign special symbols to sequences of key presses. This should work with any input source. Install xcompose by installing the libX11-devel package.

Next, assign a compose key with the Tweaks tool in the Activities overview. You will press this key in sequence with one or two additional keys to print a special character. The keys must be pressed in the correct sequence, starting with the compose key.

In the Tweaks tool, navigate to Keyboard & Mouse › Compose Key and select your command key (Figure 3.3, “Enabling the compose key in tweaks”).

Figure 3.3: Enabling the compose key in tweaks #

  

Next, create a ~/.XCompose file. This is the default per-user configuration file. Enter your keymappings in this file, like in this example:

include "%L"

<Multi_key> <a> : "α"
<Multi_key> <b> : "β"
<Multi_key> <exclam>  : "¡"

include "%L" includes the default compose file for your locale, for example /usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8.

The remaining lines specify the compose key, the other keypresses, and the symbols they are intended to print. After you make changes to your compose file, you must log out of your session and log back in to activate the changes.

Your key assignments are case-sensitive. ~/.XCompose overrides the system files. Use the compose file for your locale to see what is already configured, and to copy symbols from it into your personal compose file. (These files may have a lot of whitespace at the beginning; they are not empty so keep scrolling.) As always, watch out for conflicts with the other keymaps on your system.

For additional information see man xcompose.

The Bluetooth module lets you set the visibility of your machine over Bluetooth and connect to available Bluetooth devices. To configure Bluetooth connectivity, follow these steps:

To connect to a paired Bluetooth device, select the device in the list. In the dialog that appears, turn the Connection switch on. You can send files to the connected device by using the Send Files button. If you are connected to a device such as a mobile phone, you can use it as a network device by activating the appropriate option.

To remove a connected device from the list on your computer, click Remove Device and confirm your choice. To completely remove the pairing, you also need to do so on your device.

Settings available in this dialog depend on your hardware. In the following, the options that are typically available when using a laptop are described. On a workstation, many of the described options are not available.

To modify mouse and touchpad options, right-click the desktop and choose Settings. Then select Mouse & Touchpad.

Figure 3.4: Mouse and Touchpad settings dialog #

  

For configuration of mouse accessibility options, refer to the Section 4.4, “Keyboard and mouse”.

The Printers dialog lets you connect to any available local or remote CUPS server and configure printers.

To start the Printers module, right-click the desktop and choose Settings. Now choose Printers. For detailed information, refer to Chapter 6, Managing printers.

To specify resolution and orientation for your screen or to configure multiple screens, right-click the desktop and choose Display Settings. The configuration options available in this dialog depend on whether you have a single or a multiple monitor setup.

3.9.1 Changing settings: single monitor setup #

  

Figure 3.5: Single monitor settings dialog #

  

Orientation

If you use a monitor which can change its orientation, you need to adjust the display before turning the monitor. Use Orientation to do this. Choose the orientation your monitor supports, close the selection box and click Apply.

Resolution

To change the screen resolution, click Resolution. Choose a new value and click Apply.

Night Light

If you are working in a dark environment, your eyes can easily be strained by the monitor. To prevent this, change the screen's color palette to a warmer tone by turning on Night Light. Under Schedule you can automate this setting by specifying at which time Night Light should be turned on and off.

The Sound tool lets you manage sound devices. Here you can select the general output volume or turn the sound off completely.

To open the sound settings, right-click the desktop and choose Settings. Now choose Sound.

Figure 3.6: Configuring sound settings #

  

Use the Output category to select the device for sound output. Choose the Balance setting you prefer.

Use the Input category to set the input device volume or to mute the input temporarily. If you have more than one sound device, you can also select a default device for audio input in the Input Device list.

You can also choose an Alert Sound.

To open a configuration dialog for allowing remote logins via SSH, right-click the desktop and choose Settings. Then choose Sharing.

Before you can share anything, you need to turn on the switch in the upper part of the dialog. The switch also helps you if you quickly need to disable all sharing options.

To enable logging in via SSH, click Remote Login and enter the administrator password.

To configure accessibility features, open the Settings dialog by right-clicking the desktop and choosing Settings. In the navigation pane, select Accessibility. Each assistive feature can be enabled separately.

If you need a more direct access to individual assistive features, turn on Always Show Universal Access Menu. Now the top bar shows an icon which looks like a person surrounded by a circle.

In the Seeing section of the Accessibility dialog, you can enable features that help people with impaired vision.

In the Hearing section of the Accessibility dialog, you can enable features helping people with impaired hearing.

If the Visual Alerts are turned on, a window title or the entire screen is flashed when an alert sound occurs for the respective application.

In the Typing and Pointing and Clicking sections of the Accessibility dialog, you can enable features that help people with mobility impairments.

You can find further information in the GNOME help, which is also available online at https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/3.26/a11y.html.en.

You can connect to a network with wired and wireless connections. To view your network connection, click the network icon from the right side of the top bar. Then click Wi-Fi not connected, click the name of the network you want and click Connect. Click the connection name to see more details and access the settings.

To learn more about connecting to a network, see Book “Reference”, Chapter 28 “Using NetworkManager”.

Network browsing, be it SMB browsing for Windows shares or SLP browsing for remote services, relies heavily on the machine's ability to send broadcast messages to all clients in the network. These messages and the clients' replies to them enable your machine to detect any available shares or services.

For broadcasts to work effectively, your machine must be part of the same subnet as all other machines it is querying. If network browsing does not work on your machine or the detected shares and services do not meet your expectations, ensure that you are connected to the appropriate subnet.

To allow network browsing, your machine needs to keep several network ports open to send and receive network messages that provide details on the network and the availability of shares and services.

If you try to browse a network while a restrictive firewall is running on your machine, GNOME Files warns you that your security restrictions are not allowing it to query the network.

Networking workstations can be set up to share directories. Typically, files and directories are marked to allow users remote access. These are called network shares. If your system is configured to access network shares, you can use your file manager to access these shares and browse them just as easily as if they were located on your local machine. Your level of access to the shared directories (whether read-only or write access, as well) is dependent on the permissions granted to you by the owner of the shares.

To access network shares, open GNOME Files and click Other Locations in the sidebar. GNOME Files displays the servers and networks that you can access. Double-click a server or network to access its shares. You might be required to authenticate to the server by providing a user name and password. Common network shares are SFTP-accessible resources (SSH File Transfer Protocol) or Windows shares.

Figure 5.1: Network file browser #

  

Sharing and exchanging documents is a must-have in corporate environments. GNOME Files offers you file sharing, which makes your files and directories available to both Linux and Windows users.

5.4.3 Enabling sharing for a directory #

  

To configure file sharing for a directory:

1. Open GNOME Files.

2. Right-click a directory, select Properties and click Sharing Options.

   

3. Select Share this folder.

4. If you want other people to be able to write to the directory, select Allow others to create and delete files in this folder. To allow access for people without a user account check Guest Access.

5. Click Create Share.

6. If the directory does not already have the permissions that are required for sharing, a dialog appears. Click Add the permissions automatically.

The directory icon changes to indicate that the directory is now shared.

Important: Samba domain browsing and firewalls

Samba domain browsing only works if your system's firewall is configured accordingly. Either disable the firewall entirely or assign the browsing interface to the internal firewall zone.

With your openSUSE Leap machine being an Active Directory client, you can browse, view and manipulate data located on Windows servers. The following examples are the most prominent ones:

To access your Windows data using GNOME Files, proceed as follows:

To create directories in your Windows user directory using GNOME Files, proceed as you would when creating a Linux directory.

Being part of a corporate network and authenticating against a Windows Active Directory server, you can access corporate resources such as printers. GNOME allows you to configure printing from your Linux client to a Windows network printer.

To configure a Windows network printer for use through your Linux workstation, proceed as follows:

To print to the Windows network printer configured above, select it from the list of available printers.

Before you can install a printer, you need to know the root password and have your printer information ready. Depending on how you connect the printer, you might also need the printer URI, TCP/IP address or host, and the driver for the printer. A number of common printer drivers ship with openSUSE Leap. If you cannot find a driver for the printer, check the printer manufacturer's Web site.

The installed printer appears in the Printers panel. You can now print to the printer from any application.

If you accidentally started a print job, you can cancel the print to save paper and ink.

Before you can start to back up data, configure which files to back up, which ones to ignore and where to store the backup.

Once you have configured which folders to back up and where to store them, you have two choices for backing up. First, by manually starting the backup. Switch to the Overview screen and click Back Up Now. Choose whether you want to protect the backup with a password or not. Proceed with Forward.

The second option is to schedule automatic backups: Create a backup schedule by clicking Scheduling. Enter the backup frequency and decide how long to keep backups. Enable scheduled backups by turning the Automatic Backup switch On.

To restore a previous state of your data, switch to the Overview screen and click Restore.

Signing.  Attaching electronic signatures to pieces of information, such as e-mail messages or software to prove its origin. To keep someone else from writing messages using your name, and to protect both you and the people you send them to, you should sign your mails. Signatures help you check the sender of the messages you receive and distinguish authentic messages from malicious ones.

Software developers sign their software so that you can check the integrity. Even if you get the software from an unofficial server, you can verify the package with the signature.

Encryption.  You might also have sensitive information you want to protect from other parties. Encryption helps you transform data and make it unreadable for others. This is important for companies so they can protect internal information and their employees' privacy.

To exchange encrypted messages with other users, you must first generate your own pair of keys. It consists of two parts:

Important: Access to the private key

If others gain access to your private key, they can decrypt files and messages intended only for you. Never grant others access to your private key.

You can modify properties of existing OpenPGP or SSH keys.

Name (COMMENT) <E-MAIL>

Keys can be exported to text files. These files contain human-readable text at the beginning and at the end of a key. This format is called an ASCII-armored key.

To import keys, proceed as follows:

You can also paste keys inside Passwords and Keys:

To export keys, proceed as follows:

Signing another person's key means that you are giving trust to that person. Before signing a key, carefully check the key's fingerprint to ensure that the key really belongs to that person.

Trust is an indication of how sure you are of a person's ability to correctly extend the Web of trust. When there is a key that you have not signed, the validity of the key is determined from its signatures and how much you trust the people who made those signatures.

Passwords and Keys integrates with GNOME Files. You can encrypt, decrypt, sign, verify files, and import public keys from the file manager window without launching Passwords and Keys.

Note: Enabling file manager integration

The package nautilus-extension-seahorse has to be installed to enable file manager integration.

You can use password keyring preferences to create or remove keyrings, to set the default keyring for application passwords or to change the unlock password of a keyring. To create a new keyring, follow these steps:

To change the unlock password of an existing keyring, right-click the keyring in the Passwords tab and click Change Password. You need to provide the old password to be able to change it.

To change the default keyring for application passwords, right-click the keyring in the Passwords tab and click Set as Default.

You can keep your keys up-to-date by synchronizing keys periodically with remote key servers. Synchronizing will ensure that you have the latest signatures made on all of your keys, so that the Web of trust will be effective.

Key Sharing is provided by DNS-SD, also known as Bonjour or Rendezvous. Enabling key sharing adds the local Passwords and Keys users' public key rings to the remote search dialog. Using these local key servers is generally faster than accessing remote servers.

LibreOffice consists of several application modules (subprograms) which are designed to integrate with each other. While this chapter contains information that applies to all LibreOffice modules, the following chapters and sections contain information on individual modules. Find a short description and where each module is described in Table 9.1, “The LibreOffice application modules”.

A full description of each module is available in the application help, described in Section 9.11, “More information”.

There are multiple methods to directly start one of the LibreOffice modules:

Before you start working with LibreOffice, you may be interested in changing some options from the Preferences dialog. In any LibreOffice module, click Tools › Options to open the dialog. The most important settings are:

To learn more about configuring LibreOffice, see Section 9.8, “Changing the global settings”.

The user interface of most of LibreOffice is very similar across its modules:

For more information on customizing LibreOffice, see Section 9.7, “Customizing LibreOffice”.

The native file format of LibreOffice is the OpenDocument format. OpenDocument is an ISO-standardized format for office documents that is based on XML. However, LibreOffice can also work with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and databases in many other formats, including Microsoft Office formats. Files in Microsoft Office formats can be opened and saved back normally.

You can save files, no matter in which LibreOffice format, with a password. Unlike older versions of LibreOffice, the encryption applied to the document with recent versions of LibreOffice is very strong. However, this encryption does not protect file names and file sizes of encrypted files. If that is important to you, see the alternate encryption methods described in Book “Security and Hardening Guide”, Chapter 12 “Encrypting partitions and files”.

The next time you open the file, you will be prompted for the password.

To change the password, do either of the following:

You can digitally sign documents to protect them. For this, you need a personal certificate, similar to an HTTPS certificate. You can either create a self-signed certificate or choose to obtain one from a Certificate Authority.

When applying a digital signature to a document, a kind of checksum is created from the document's content and your personal key. The checksum is stored together with the document.

When another person opens the document, the checksum will be generated again. The new checksum is then compared to the original checksum. If both are equal, the application will signal that the document has not been changed in the meantime.

To add a certificate to LibreOffice, you need to use Firefox:

To sign a document, first open it in LibreOffice. Then select File › Digital Signatures › Digital Signatures. Select the certificate you want to use for signing, then click Save.

You can customize LibreOffice to best suit your needs and working style. Toolbars, menus, and key combinations can all be reconfigured to help you more quickly access the features you use the most.

You can also assign macros to application events if you want specific actions to occur when those events take place. For example, if you always work with a specific spreadsheet, you can create a macro that opens the spreadsheet and assign the macro to the Start Application event.

This section contains simple, generic instructions for customizing your environment. The changes you make are effective immediately. This means you can see if the changes are what you wanted and go back and modify them if they are not. See the LibreOffice help files for detailed instructions.

To access the customization dialog in any open LibreOffice module, select Tools › Customize.

Figure 9.1: Customization dialog in Writer #

  

Note: More information

Click Help for more information about the options in the Customize dialog.

Procedure 9.4: Customizing context menus #

  

You can modify commands, rearrange the items of a context menu, or even create new commands.

Note

The Context Menus tab is only available in an open document.

1. Open a document. In the customization dialog, click the tab Context Menus.

2. In the left column, select a Category. In the right column, select the Target.

3. To add a separator or submenu, click Insert. To rename a command, select the command in the right column and click Modify.

4. To switch back to the original settings, click Defaults and confirm with Yes.

5. To save the changes, click OK.

Procedure 9.6: Customizing key combinations #

  

You can reassign key combinations and assign new ones to frequently used functions.

Note

The Keyboard tab is only available in an open document.

1. Open a document and click Tools › Customize › Keyboard.

2. In the Shortcut Keys box, select the key or key combination you want to assign a command to.

3. Select a Category and Function at the bottom of the dialog.

4. Click Modify to assign the function to the key or Delete to remove an existing assignment.

5. To save the changes, click OK.

Global settings can be changed in any LibreOffice module by clicking Tools › Options on the menu bar. This opens the window shown in the figure below. A tree structure is used to display categories of settings.

Figure 9.2: The options window #

  

The settings categories that appear depend on the module you are working in. For example, if you are in Writer, the LibreOffice Writer category appears in the list, but the LibreOffice Calc category does not. The LibreOffice Base category appears in both Calc and Writer. The Module column in the table shows where each setting category is available.

The following table lists the settings categories along with a brief description of each category:

Important: Settings apply globally

All settings listed in the table apply globally for the specified modules. That means, they are used as defaults for every new document you create.

A template is a document containing only the styles—and content— that you want to appear in every document of that type. When a document is created or opened with the template, the styles are automatically applied to that document. Templates greatly enhance the use of LibreOffice by simplifying formatting tasks for a variety of different types of documents.

For example, in a word processor, you can write letters, memos, and reports, all of which look different and require different styles. Or, for example, for spreadsheets, you could use different cell styles or headings for certain types of spreadsheets. If you use templates for each of your document types, the styles you need for each document are always readily available.

LibreOffice comes with a set of predefined templates. You can also find additional templates on the Internet, for example at http://templates.libreoffice.org. For details, see Section 9.11, “More information”.

Creating your own templates requires some planning. You need to determine how you want the document to look, so you can create the styles you need in that template.

A detailed explanation of templates is beyond the scope of this section. Procedure 9.7, “Creating LibreOffice templates” only shows how to generate a template from an existing document.

Note: Converting Microsoft Word templates

You can convert Microsoft Word templates like you would convert any other Word document. For more information, see Section 9.4.2, “Converting documents to the OpenDocument format”.

When exchanging documents with other people, it is sometimes useful to store metadata like the owner of the file, who it was received from, and a URL. LibreOffice lets you attach such metadata to the file. This helps you track metadata which you do not want to or cannot save in the content of the file. This feature is also the basis for later sorting, searching and retrieving your documents based on metadata.

As an example, we assume you want to set these properties to your file:

To attach such metadata to your document, proceed as follows:

LibreOffice has extensive online help. In addition, a large community of users and developers support it. The following list shows some places where you can go for additional information.

There are multiple ways to create a new Writer document:

For example, to create a business letter, click File › Wizards › Business Letter. Using the wizard, you can easily create a basic document using a standard format. A sample wizard dialog is shown in Figure 10.1.

Figure 10.1: A LibreOffice wizard #

  

Enter text in the document window as needed. Use the tools for applying and changing styles or the tools for direct formatting to adjust the appearance of the document. Use the File menu or the relevant buttons in the toolbar to print and save your document. With the options under Insert, add extra items to your document, such as a table, picture, or chart.

The traditional way of formatting office documents is direct formatting. That means, you use a button, such as Bold, which sets a certain property (in this case, a bold typeface). With styles, you can bundle a set of properties (for example, font size and font weight) and give them a speaking name, such as Headline, first level. Using styles, rather than direct formatting has the following advantages:

LibreOffice can use styles for applying consistent formatting to various elements in a document. The following types of styles are available in Writer:

Direct formatting overrides any styles you have applied. For example, format a piece of text both with a character style and using the button Bold. Now, the text will be bold, no matter what is set in the style.

To remove all direct formatting, first select the appropriate text, then right-click it and choose Clear Direct Formatting.

Likewise, if you manually format paragraphs using Format › Paragraph, you can end up with inconsistent paragraph formatting. This is especially true if you copy and paste paragraphs from other documents with different formatting. However, if you apply paragraph styles, formatting remains consistent. If you change a style, the change is automatically applied to all paragraphs formatted with that style.

10.2.1 The side bar panel Styles #

  

The side bar panel Styles is a versatile formatting tool for applying styles to text, paragraphs, pages, frames, and lists. To open this panel, click the button Styles in the side bar, or press F11.

Figure 10.2: Styles panel #

  

LibreOffice comes with several predefined styles. You can use these styles as they are, modify them, or create new styles. Use the icons at the top of the panel to display formatting styles for the most common elements such as paragraphs, frames, pages or lists. To learn more about styles, continue with the instructions below.

You can use Writer to work on large documents. Large documents can be either a single file or a collection of files assembled into a single document.

10.3.1 Navigating in large documents #

  

The Navigator tool displays information about the contents of a document. It also lets you quickly jump to different elements. For example, use the Navigator to get a quick overview of all images included in a document.

To open the Navigator, click View › Navigator or press F5. The elements listed in the Navigator vary with the document loaded in Writer.

The Navigator is also an element of the side bar: There, it can be opened using the button Navigator (a compass).

Double-click an item in the Navigator to jump to that item in the document.

Figure 10.3: Navigator tool in Writer #

  

10.3.2 Using master documents #

  

If you are working with a very large document, such as a book, it can be easier to manage the book with a master document, rather than keeping the book in a single file. A master document enables you to quickly apply formatting changes to a large document or to jump to each subdocument for editing.

A master document is a Writer document that serves as a container for multiple Writer files. You can maintain chapters or other subdocuments as individual files collected in the master document. Master documents are also useful if multiple users are working on a single document. You can separate each user’s section of the document into subdocuments collected in a master document, allowing multiple writers to work on their subdocuments at the same time without fear of overwriting the work of others.

Procedure 10.6: Creating a master document #

  

1. Click File › New › Master Document.

   or

   Open an existing document and click File › Send › Create Master Document.

2. The Navigator window will open. In it, choose Insert, then choose File.

3. Select a file to add an existing file to the master document and click Open.

Procedure 10.7: Adding a new document to a master document #

  

1. In the window or panel Navigator, choose Insert, then choose New Document.

2. A file chooser opens, to allow saving the new document. Specify a name, then click Save.

3. When you are done editing the new document, save it. Then switch back to the master document.

4. Update the master document with the contents of the new document. To do so, right-click the entry of your new document in the Navigator, then click the arrow to the right of Update and choose Selection.

To enter some text directly into the master document, click the arrow to the right of Insert and choose Text.

The LibreOffice help files contain more complete information about working with master documents. Look for the topic named Using Master Documents and Subdocuments.

Tip: Styles and templates in master documents

The styles from all of your subdocuments are imported into the master document. To ensure that formatting is consistent throughout your master document, use the same template for each subdocument. Doing so is not mandatory.

However, if subdocuments are formatted differently, you might need to do some reformatting to successfully bring subdocuments into the master document without creating inconsistencies. For example, if two documents within a master document include styles with the same name, the master document will use the formatting specified for the style in the document imported first.

In addition to being a full-featured word processor, Writer also functions as an HTML editor. You can style HTML pages like any other document, but there are specific HTML Styles that help with creating good HTML. You can view the document as it will appear online, or you can directly edit the HTML code.

To edit HTML code directly or to see the HTML code created when you edit the HTML file as a Writer document, click View › HTML Source. In HTML Source mode, the Formatting and Styles list is not available.

The first time you switch to HTML Source mode, you are prompted to save the file as HTML, if you have not already done so.

To switch back from HTML Source mode to Web Layout, click View › HTML source again.

There are two ways to create a new Calc document:

Access the individual sheets by clicking their respective tabs at the bottom of the window.

Enter data in the cells as needed. To adjust the appearance, either use the Formatting toolbar or side bar panel, or use the Format menu—or define styles as described in Section 11.2, “Using formatting and styles in Calc”. Use the File menu or the relevant buttons in the toolbar to print and save your document.

Calc comes with a few built-in cell and page styles to improve the appearance of your spreadsheets and reports. Although these built-in styles are adequate for many uses, you will probably find it useful to create styles for your own frequently used formatting preferences.

To apply a style to specific cells, select the cells you want to format. Then double-click the style you want to apply in the Styles window.

Sheets are a good method to organize your calculations. For example, if you have a business, accounting might be much clearer if you create a sheet for each month.

To insert a new sheet after the last sheet, click the button + next to the sheet tabs at the bottom of the window.

To insert one or more new sheets into your spreadsheet from a file or at a specific position at once, do the following:

To rename a sheet, right-click the tab of the sheet and select Rename Sheet. Alternatively, you can also double-click the sheet tab.

To delete one or multiple sheets, do the following: Select the sheet you want to delete. To select more than one sheet, hold down Shift while making the selection. Then right-click the tab of the sheet, choose Delete Sheet and confirm with Yes.

Conditional formatting is a useful feature to highlight certain values in your spreadsheet. For example, define a condition and if the condition is true, a style is applied to each cell that fulfills this condition.

Note: Enable AutoCalculate

Before you apply conditional formatting, choose Data › Calculate › AutoCalculate. You should see a check mark in front of AutoCalculate.

Grouping a cell range allows hiding parts of a spreadsheet. This makes spreadsheets more readable, as you can hide all the parts you are not currently interested in. It is possible to group rows or columns and nest groups in other groups.

To group a range, proceed as follows:

After grouping selected cells, a line indicating the grouped cell range appears in the upper-left margin. Fold or unfold the cell range with the + and – icons. The numbers at the top left of the margins display the depth of your groups and can be clicked too.

To ungroup a cell range, click into a cell which belongs to a group and select Data › Group and Outline › Ungroup. The line in the margin disappears. The innermost group is always deleted first.

If you have a spreadsheet with lots of data, scrolling usually makes the header disappear. LibreOffice can lock rows or columns or both, so they remain fixed as you scroll around.

To freeze a single row or a single column, proceed as follows:

It is also possible to freeze both rows and columns:

To unfreeze, select View and uncheck Freeze Rows and Columns. The check mark before the menu item disappears.

Use LibreOffice Impress to create presentations for screen display or printing. If you have used other presentation software, Impress makes it easy to switch. It works very similarly to other presentation software.

12.1.2 Using master pages #

  

Master pages give your presentation a consistent look by defining what fonts and other design elements are used. Impress uses two types of master pages:

Master slide

Contains elements that appear on all slides. For example, you might want your company logo to appear in the same place on every slide. The slide master also determines the text formatting style for the heading and outline of every slide that uses that master page, as well as any information you want to appear in a header or footer.

Master notes

Determines the formatting and appearance of the notes in your presentation.

12.1.2.1 Creating a master slide #

  

Impress comes with a collection of preformatted master pages. To customize presentations further, create your own slide masters.

1. Start Impress with an existing presentation or create a new one as described in Section 12.1.1, “Creating a presentation”.

2. Click View › Master Slide.

   This opens the current master slide in Master View. The Master View toolbar appears.

3. Right-click the left-hand panel, then click New Master.

4. Edit the master slide until it has the final look.

   Master view allows editing outline styles by directly formatting the sample text on the slide.

5. To finish editing master slides, in the Master View toolbar, click Close Master View. Alternatively, choose View › Normal.

Tip: Collect master slides in a template

When you have created all of the master slides you want to use in your presentations, you can save them in an Impress template. Then, any time you want to create presentations that use those master slides, open a new presentation with your template.

12.1.2.2 Applying a master slide #

  

Master slides can be applied to selected slides or to all slides of a presentation.

1. Open your presentation.

   

   Tip: Applying master slides

   To apply a master slide to multiple slides but not all slides: Select the slides that you want a slide master applied to.

2. To select multiple slides, pressCtrl in the Slides pane while clicking the slides you want to use.

3. In the Tasks pane, open the Master Pages pane and click the master page you want to apply. The master slide is applied to the corresponding page or pages.

   If you do not see the Task Pane, click View › Task Pane.

LibreOffice includes the database module Base for designing a database to store many kinds of information. From a simple address book or recipe file to a sophisticated document management system.

Tables, forms, queries, and reports can be created manually or by using convenient wizards. For example, the Table Wizard contains several common fields for business and personal use. Databases created in Base can be used as data sources, such as when creating form letters.

It is beyond the scope of this document to detail database design with Base. Find more information in the sources listed in Section 9.11, “More information”.

Use LibreOffice Draw to create graphics and diagrams. You can export your drawings to the most common vector graphics formats and import them into any application that lets you import graphics, including other LibreOffice modules. You can also create Adobe* Flash* (SWF) versions of your drawings.

To embed an existing Draw graphic into a LibreOffice document, select Insert › Object › OLE Object. Select Create from file and click Search to navigate to the Draw file to insert.

To be able to edit the graphic later on its own, activate Link to file.

If you insert a file as OLE object, you can edit the object later by double-clicking it.

It is usually difficult to include complex mathematical formulas in your documents. To make this task easier, the LibreOffice Math equation editor lets you create formulas using operators, functions, and formatting assistants. You can then save those formulas as an object that can be imported into other documents. Math functions can be inserted into other LibreOffice documents like any other graphic object.

Note: Math for creating mathematical formulas

Math is not a calculator. The functions it creates are graphical objects. Even if they are imported into Calc, these functions cannot be evaluated.

To create a formula, proceed as follows:

The result is shown in Figure 12.1, “Mathematical formula in LibreOffice Math ”:

Figure 12.1: Mathematical formula in LibreOffice Math #

  

It is possible to include your formula in Writer. To do so, proceed as follows:

Open the Activities overview by pressing Meta and search for fire.

The look and feel of Firefox is similar to that of other browsers. It is shown in Figure 13.1, “The browser window of Firefox”. At the top of the window, you find the address bar for a Web address, and the search bar. Bookmarks are also available for quick access from the bookmarks toolbar. For more information about the various Firefox features, use the Help menu in the menu bar.

Note: Using the menu bar

While most functions of Firefox are available through the three-lines button (), some are only available from the menu bar.

The menu bar of Firefox is hidden by default. To temporarily show it, press Alt. It will then be displayed until you click elsewhere in the browser window.

To permanently enable the menu bar, first press Alt, then choose View › Toolbars and activate the Menu Bar check box.

Figure 13.1: The browser window of Firefox #